Scorched Earth - Robert Muchamore Page 0,27
spots where he thought there was a good chance of ambushing fuel trucks and sent a small team to each one. Tanker trucks had no armour and thousands of litres of fuel on board, so could be obliterated by a single grenade, but Henderson doubted they’d have things all their own way. It was high summer, so it would stay light until 10 p.m. and, with fuel desperately short, the tankers were sure to have armed escorts.
Joel led a team of three Maquis, Sam and Edith led another, while Henderson’s own group comprised two seventeen-year-old Maquis and eleven-year-old Daniel.
It was 8.30 p.m. when Marc and Paul tracked Henderson down to a stretch of curved road half a kilometre north-east of Beauvais. Marc made a peace offering with slices of chicken pie from the farmhouse. The two Maquis accepted them eagerly, but Henderson kept scowling.
‘I don’t expect three of my best people to disappear,’ he said, keeping his voice low because there was always the chance of a German patrol this close to town. ‘I told you we only have one objective right now.’
‘It’s all my fault,’ Paul said. ‘PT found a lead on Commander Robert and I wanted—’
‘I don’t give a damn,’ Henderson interrupted. ‘When we’re on operations you follow my orders. And since the briefing at Abbeville, has there been any ambiguity about what those orders are?’
Paul and Marc spoke in unison. ‘No, sir.’
‘Where are PT and Luc?’
‘When we got back to the woods and heard what had happened we thought you’d want us spread around,’ Paul explained. ‘So we all grabbed our equipment. We came here, and PT and Luc went to find Sam and Edith’s team.’
This made sense, but Henderson was in too much of a mood to voice approval. ‘We all loved Rosie, but she’d have wanted us to respect her memory by continuing to fight the war, not by going off on some wild goose chase tracking down the man who killed her.’
‘Yes, sir,’ Paul said. ‘So shall we stick here with you?’
Henderson nodded. ‘I picked this spot for myself because it’s central. The other two teams are all within a kilometre. If we hear any tankers getting blown up we can reinforce them if necessary—’
‘Captain, sssh!’ one of the Maquis boys said.
He was a small blond lad who looked younger than his seventeen years. Henderson didn’t like his tone, but soon realised there were vehicles coming. Daniel was up a tree 20 metres back from the road and gave a shout.
‘Eight vehicles, including three tankers. Six hundred metres, moving fast.’
Henderson grinned as he turned towards Marc and Paul. ‘Good job you turned up – eight vehicles is a big chunk to bite.’ Then he looked around at the two Maquis and addressed them as well. ‘There’s a lot of them and not many of us. This is strictly blast and run. No heroics. Is that clear?’
As the boys nodded or said, ‘Yes, sir,’ Henderson grabbed a package of explosives stuck to a wooden bar tray. He planned to throw them into the road a few seconds ahead of the lead vehicle.
Daniel had jumped out of his tree and emerged breathlessly at the roadside as the convoy started getting loud. ‘Can I help?’
Henderson shook his head. ‘Run now, and don’t stop until you get to the woods.’
It was just dark enough for the lead truck in the convoy to have its headlight on. Henderson had to slide his tray of explosives skilfully. Too soon and the driver might swerve, too late and it wouldn’t blow until the vehicle passed over.
‘Spread out,’ Marc told the two Maquis. ‘Wait for the first bang, then aim everything you’ve got at the tankers.’
As Paul grabbed a couple of grenades from a sack, Marc flipped up the scope on his sniper rifle and dropped into a firing position. Springing up from his crouching position at the side of the road, Henderson shoved his tray of explosives in front of the lead vehicle, which was an open-backed truck equipped with a heavy-calibre anti-aircraft gun.
The truck’s front wheel hit the tray, spilling plastic explosive across the road. The back wheels cleared before a dozen balls of explosive detonated, but the blast was still enough to lift the truck off the road and shatter the rear axle.
As Henderson ducked chunks of shrapnel big enough to kill him, the blast caught the second vehicle in the convoy – a troop truck. The shockwave instantly killed the driver, while the soldiers behind were forced to